Ebola Outbreak in Congo Has Spread to Eight Provinces

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo had spread to eight provinces by November 13, 2026, according to The New York Times. Ebola is a viral disease. The outbreak was first detected in May, about six months earlier, and it was initially concentrated in a handful of towns in one province.

The outbreak's hot spots in eastern Congo are scattered across an area about the size of Britain. One of them, Biakato, is a small town in the rainforest that accounted for as many as one-quarter of new cases nationwide, the Times reported. The paper described the outbreak as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.

Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe helped discover Ebola in 1976. He now heads Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research.

The effort to contain the epidemic has also faced a new threat from the Islamic State, the militant group, the Times reported.